


Home Alone (Together)

by realfakedoors



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Dorks in Love, F/M, Long-Distance Relationship, Near Future, Phone Calls & Telephones, Short & Sweet, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-09-26 00:23:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20380606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/realfakedoors/pseuds/realfakedoors
Summary: Steven's bummed out because he can't spend Christmas with Connie. They talk on the phone for hours anyway.Just some Connverse fluff!





	Home Alone (Together)

**Author's Note:**

> A Christmas fic in August? Yeah, this has been sitting in my tumblr inbox for THAT long. I'm sorry anon lmao. better late than never.....??
> 
> Prompt: We’re stuck in different cities, so we won’t be together for Christmas. We end up talking on the phone for hours, to the annoyance of our families

If there was one thing that could be said about Steven Universe, it was that he tried his absolute best to make everyone happy, no matter how trivial or significant the subject. 

His name might as well be Steven _Compromise _Universe. It was just his nature to make sacrifices for the well-being of other people.

Fighting for who gets to put a show on the TV? Easy, just pick someone everyone would like. Helping Ronaldo track down sneople? Sure! He’s got nothing but time. Stranding himself on an island to help Lars and Sadie fix their marriage? That’s practically a vacation.

Even facing an intergalactic gem war and the impending human genocide? Pff. No big deal. All he had to do was _negotiate_, play the part of his Mom in a pretty pink tutu, have his gem yanked right out of his navel and _bam_. Peace across the universe!

He’d never, not once, had trouble compromising. Who thought a single phone call, pitted against an obligatory Christmas party, would be the thing to break his spotless record?

“Ohh no, you are _not _going to hide on the porch, young man. It’s _snowing_. Come have dinner,” Pearl demanded, blocking his path outside. It was with no small amount of effort that Steven managed not to groan, but he covered the receiver of his cell phone and pouted.

“Pearl, _c’mon_, this is the only time of day Connie and I can talk! It’s Christmas for Lion’s sake!”

“Thank you for the reminder,” her lips thinned, the sarcasm not lost on him. “Which is all the more reason to put down the phone and spend time with your father, your uncle and the others. Padparadscha does a better job at staying, erm, _present_ when you’re around, and your Lardo friend is supposed to be here any minute.”

“Oh my god, Pearl, it’s been like—_eight years _since Homeworld, I _know _you know his name is Lars.”

She raised a brow and sighed, guiding him by the shoulders towards the addition Bismuth had added to the house. “I’ll remember your friend’s name when he remembers to take his disgusting boots off before tracking in the living room. Maybe I could remind him—_at dinner, with our guests. _Which we started fifteen minutes ago.”

“Okay, okay, just—five more minutes, okay? Let me just say goodbye and junk.”

The gem heaved a sigh so heavy it could have probably knocked him over at a younger age, but Steven recognized a victory—whining and shameless, maybe, but a victory nonetheless. She said, “_Five_ minutes. That’s it. If you’re not at the table in _five_ minutes I’m going to get Garnet.”

Steven nodded excitedly, and Pearl gave a fleeting smile before floating her way back up the short stairway, the sound of revelry and merry-making going on behind the closed door. It had been turned into a pseudo-dining-party-room for the occasion.

Sitting back down by the windows at the front of the Beach House, Steven curled up in the blanket he’d been using and looked back out at the falling snow. It was already dark out, winter having that inevitable draw of shorter days, and Steven could have lost himself in the quiet beauty of snowflakes dusting the sands, catching in the sea foam.

“Sorry, I know I’m keeping you,” Connie spoke on the other end of the line, returning his attention to the conversation. She sounded exhausted, and rightly so—studying abroad had thrown any hopes of a normal conversation between them into the winds. When she was in class, Steven was asleep; when she was waking up, Steven was usually sitting down for dinner. They just could never catch each other. If it wasn’t exams, it was Gem diplomacy stuff. And if it wasn’t him helping coordinate something with Mayor Nanafeu, then it was Connie going out with her new friends and studying or just enjoying themselves.

Steven wanted this for her, wanted her to live her life fully and make the most of this incredible opportunity.

Incidentally, Steven _also_ wanted to spend every second of every day with her, so it was safe to say he was in a bit of a bind.

That was part of the reason they had agreed to limit their use of Lion’s portal to once a month, with the exception of emergencies. And missing Connie did not constitute an emergency… (Not that Steven hadn’t tried to justify that to himself, too.)

“Steven? Maybe I should just let you go,” Connie hummed. “I know things must be crazy over there right now. I talked to Bismuth earlier this week and she said there was supposed to be, like, 25 people?”

He laughed, closing his eyes and shaking the loneliness from his thoughts. “Yeah. Yeah, let’s see, it’s supposed to be me, the Gems, Bismuth, Lapis, Peridot. Padparadscha, Rhodonite, Rutile, Fluorite, uhh, Lars. Who wasn’t originally going to come, but that’s cool! The Pizzas, the Deweys, uhh who else… oh, Blue and Yellow stopped by yesterday, but I feel like a human Christmas Party wouldn’t really be their thing so they went back to Homeworld already.”

That made Connie laugh, the sound brighter than the ice crystals forming along the window pane. “Could you imagine? Would they just, like, sit outside and you’d bring out food? Or wait, they don’t eat, do they?”

“Actually!” Steven grinned, mindlessly watching the world outside. “I got Yellow to try something again. Considering the first time she ate and, erm, things didn’t... go so well…”

Deadpan, Connie remarked, “I feel like vaporizing the Big Donut constitutes more than a ‘not so well’, but go on.”

“Right, well, yesterday she tried fruit, and she actually really liked that? I was so surprised! They’ve really become so open-minded…”

“Yeah.” Steven could hear the smile in Connie’s voice, wistful. “They all have.”

For a few seconds, they were both quiet. Steven had about fifteen things he could have said, but none of them felt adequate, like they wouldn’t be worth spending the last—he glanced at the clock—three minutes of their conversation discussing something silly like his new strawberry keychain that reminded him of her, or the song he and his Dad were writing. 

Finally, Connie took the initiative to speak, voice soft. “I really miss you.” 

“Connieeeeeeeee… I miss you too. So much.” Steven laid his head between his knees. “I love Christmas, and I love the Gems and all of this. But I would love it so much more if you were here.”

“Me too, Steven.”

“Did I tell you that I love you? And I would give you the biggest hug if you were here?”

“Yes, Steven. I appreciate a bribe as much as the next girl, but we talked about this.”

“Wellllll, what about, if I could come get you on Lion and we could go be on our own! Anywhere you want. I’d do it in a heartbeat, you know!”

“I know, Steven.” She laughed this time. “That’s all the more reason you probably should go spend time with them. They’re your family and love you too.”

Blowing air loudly from his cheeks, Steven let out a moody, “_You sound like Pearl._”

“I’m taking that as a compliment,” giggling, Connie’s voice quickly returned to its former tone of mixed apology and amusement. “I’ll be home next month for two whole weeks. We’ll have tons of time then. I miss you so much, but the reason we agreed to this was so that both of us could really _live_… don’t miss out on the party just for me.”

Steven rested his cheek against the frosty glass. “I know… you’re always so smart, Connie. I think it’s just the holiday stuff makes my insides all squishy. You know?”

“Of course.” A hum. “My squishy, squishy boyfriend.”

“You know what I mean!” Steven laughed. “I guess it doesn’t feel like Christmas without you. But—ah, oh no.”

“Steven?”

At that same moment, the door to the party opened and the framed appearance of the most noteworthy fusion in Steven’s life appeared, stoic in a tiny, tiny Christmas hat.

“I’ve just got to go, sorry Connie.”

He could practically _hear _her skeptically raising her brow on the other end. “If you say sorry for hanging up I’ll reach through the phone and punch you.”

“At this point, I’d gladly let you punch me. Then I could kiss your knuckles.”

Exasperated, Connie said, “_Steven_.”

_“Sorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorry—”_

“_Steven_!” 

The two burst out laughing, and Steven curled smaller into his blanket as Garnet started to approach him.

“Alright,” Connie said, sounding a little breathless. “Tell everyone I love them. Well, maybe not, like, Lars or the Pizzas or those people. You know what I mean.”

They both chuckled at that, because, yes, he did.

“I love you, Steven. Merry Christmas.”

His heart felt, somehow, unbearably heavy and miraculously light both. It wouldn’t matter how many hundreds of times they said it—loving Connie will never fail to make Steven the happiest guy on the entire Earth. Actually, he can say with confidence, in the entire universe.

“Love you too, have a good day.”

_Beep_.

The cool sound of Garnet’s voice matched a gentle hand landing on his head, mussing his hair. “Hello, Steven.” 

“_Garrrrrrrrnetttttttttttttt_—” Steven whined quietly, pulling out his signature puppy dog eyes. “I misssssssssssssss _herrrrrrrr_. Ruby and Sapphire didn’t tell me love was going to be this hard.”

She chuckled, picking him up from beneath the arms and forcing him to stand. It was done with the same ease as if he were still 14 years old, nevermind that he was taller than Pearl now.

“Love takes work,” she said simply. “And sometimes, it takes time. Be patient, Steven.”

Immediately, Steven’s posture straightened, frowning. “I am! I just… I guess it’s just been such a lonely year with Lars traveling and Peridot and Lapis rebuilding the barn and—I want to give her a gift and the house has been cold and I wanna cuddle! Is it weird to miss Stevonnie too? Like I miss being… us.”

Smiling, Garnet began to lead him towards the party. “Not weird at all. But you know, even after you see her again next time, there will be times that it hurts. It’s not going to be easy. As long as you believe Connie is worth it...”

“She is!” He blurted, fiercer than he intended. “She’s worth more to me than anything! I’m gonna love her forever, even if it is the hardest thing I have to do.”

Accented by a subtle shift of her glasses, Garnet replied, “Oh, I know.”


End file.
